The Assistants
by LeSunkist
Summary: They were just working for Pepper Potts and Tony Stark. It was just something better to do than cleaning up toilets in a crappy bar. But that was before the superhero revolution, compliments of Tony 'I am Iron Man' Stark. Of course the two mutants working for him would get dragged into it all. How else did they expect it to end?
1. Prologue

**NEW YEAR'S EVE**

**1999**

It was really crazy how stupid people became when they thought their world was ending. Isabeau Asmundor watched with an upturned nose and a roll of her eyes as kids her age ran around screaming, drinking, smoking, fucking; really doing anything they weren't allowed. Whether they actually believed that the world was ending or they were doing it to spite their former-hippie parents was unknown.

Isabeau – or Izzy, really – is often described by her peers as a very neutral person; neutral or unassuming, whichever you prefer. She made it her life's goal to be unnoticeable. She wore bland coloured clothes and spoke in a soft calming voice. She was very good at diffusing high-stress situations, but she'd much rather prefer not being near the situations at all.

It's not that she was scared of the world or what was in it, she merely had a self-loathing aspect to her personality based on the fact that she was a mutant. Her ability was quite a volatile one as she was able to set things on fire whenever her emotional state became unstable.

Well, it was not so much as starting a fire as much as it was the fact that fires tended to start fires around her without her knowledge when she was filled with a sudden strong emotion. In high school this tended to fear or anger. Fear blew light bulbs, and anger started chemical fires.

Go figure.

She was blonde and taller than average, and had bright amber eyes. Most thought her very pretty, but she was almost insistent on not starting any relationships with anyone for fear of setting them on fire or something ridiculous.

The only reason she was in a forest surrounded by fireworks and slowly but surely getting stoned from marijuana was because of an admittedly poor choice in friends.

Melody Lachly, as well as being a mutant sister-in-arms, had a very different outlook on life. She, very much like Izzy's fire, was volatile and reckless and liked to break things. She was tall as well, with brown hair and yellow eyes and had more muscle tone in comparison to Izzy's wisp-like frame.

If Izzy's life goal was to keep peace, it would be only because Mel's life goal was to create chaos. They were two very different peas in a pod, really.

Mel's mutation was based more on the physical side. She had heightened smell, hearing, eyesight and metabolism. She could heal somewhat faster than the average human and she could do almost all physically taxing activities better and for longer than everyone that Izzy knew.

More recently her mutation had gone an extra step, and she now had shape-changing abilities. Think werewolf. Or more like hairless were-cat; her limbs would elongate and become more animalistic, muscles would grow and stretch her skin taut, and her teeth would grow long and sharp as her mouth pushed out slightly; ears became long and pointed like an elf – again, very funny to Izzy – and long, yellow retractable claws would grow from her fingers and toes. It wasn't very attractive, however it was fun to watch drunk kids cower in fear every now and only to forget about it in the morning.

"My god, I hated her so much!" Mel crowed with fireworks in her arms. She was swaying around, trying and mostly failing to put the fireworks up right into the ground where Izzy would attempt to light them up using her mind.

"I know," Izzy said. She was sitting cross-legged and chanting absolute nonsense pretending to be some tantric yogi.

The 'her' that Mel was referring to was Mel's mother : the drug addict that over-dosed on heroine just 6 months ago leaving her daughter an orphan and forcing her to move in with Isabeau and her mother.

Mel stole some left over rolled up joints before the police cleared the entire apartment, stating that 'I'm saving this for a rainy day'. And though it wasn't forecast to rain on the day the world ended, it was still a pretty nice treat for the end of the year.

"And like, it's not even because she was a terrible human being!" the brunette elaborated. She was nearing the end of her supplies of fireworks. "It's because she forgot my 16th birthday."

"I didn't forget your birthday!" Izzy yelled out, and the half finished joint burst into flames, filling the air with its fumes.

"I know _you _didn't," Mel replied, pointing at her wildly, "_She_ forgot my birthday, and then, like, a week later, she's dead. Like dead. Like who does that?"

"_She_ does!" Izzy stated and jumped up from her seated position to dance wildly to the portable radio they had brought with them.

"_Exactly!_" Mel said and walked away from her rings of fireworks, having finally completed her task. Even though, or rather, because of her higher metabolism and healing rate, Mel had smoked about 4 times as much Izzy had. And because of that, she looked as though she had started to change her shape into her more animalistic form, but decided not to half way. She had the long limbs and claws but she looked bony as the muscles were unable to keep up and her face still looked human.

Not attractive at all.

Mel was wearing an old orange jersey with the sleeves ripped and shredded thanks to her claws, and her even older stretchy waisted grey track suit pants didn't fare much better. Mel had to keep pulling it up since her waist always slimmed down to an anorexic size whenever she changed. Izzy assumed that everything else just got squished up underneath her rib cage, which enlarged when she changed.

Izzy didn't look any less stranger as sometime during the night she or Mel had plaited red and orange beads into her hair, and she was wearing a crown made of twigs and small flowers. She was wearing an atrocious sheer floral patterned dress over a white wife beater and dark blue denim cut-offs. She had big brightly coloured jewellery on her ankles, wrists and neck and looked like a hippie threw up on her.

"Light 'em up Cinder!" Mel cried out with a snarl, using a nickname they'd come up with when they were kids.

"You better stand back then, Wendigo," Cinder snickered and the both took a few steps began as she made attempts to light the fireworks. It took a few moments but when she finally threw her hands up into the air with a cry of anguish a few fireworks caught fire and shot up into the air with an unexpected amount of heat and light. The resulting flames set the others alight and soon Cinder and Wendigo were screaming and jumping around to the sound of the music.

Isabeau was uncertain what happened after that, but sometimes if she thought hard enough she caught glimpses of Mel meowing at the moon and being carried around by Mel in her full animal form. She woke up the next morning curled around her best friend and having absolutely no clue where they were.

It took them 6 hours to find their way back home, and they were both grounded for the next 7 months. Not that it mattered, really, since Mel disappeared. It took 2 years before Izzy saw her best friend again.


	2. Chapter 1

**PRESENT DAY**

A tall brunette woman lay in her SHIELD issued cot aboard the helicarrier, in a relatively peaceful slumber. It was 3:04 in the morning, and she had collapsed into bed about an hour ago, eternally grateful for the solace that her uncomfortable mattress and scratchy sheets gave her. It used to annoy her, but she soon felt that the way-too-starched sheets had a sense of home to them. Not to say that she belonged – because she doubted she would ever actually know what that felt like – but just a sort of cosy home-like feeling. But that was probably because she hadn't seen her _actual_ home for over a year.

She had been made an agent of SHIELD 3 months ago, an occasion she would have celebrated with friends if she had friends. Or at the very least, friends with security clearance. As it was, she ended up sharing a bottle of some really strong vodka with a bunch of other agents that passed the test. The alcohol was nice but the agents were real assholes when they thought she couldn't hear what they were saying.

Her best friend was jet-setting around the world with her boss, and when she wasn't with her boss she was with her hot-shot British boy-toy. Isabeau called him a 'boyfriend', but Mel knew a boy-toy when she saw one.

She'd had a few of her own over the years, after all.

_What's new pussycat? WOAH-OH-OH-OH!_

Speak of the devil.

_What's new pussycat? WOAH-OH-OH-OH!_

The only person with that obnoxious ringtone was Isabeau, as to warn Mel from answering the call with something stupid like 'Agent Lachly of SHIELD, what the fuck d'you want?'.

_What's new pussycat? WOAH-OH-OH-OH!_

Mel stirred slightly, the pleasing tones, yet annoying lyrics of Tom Jones finally reaching her ears. She could tolerate the chorus of the song, and generally people ended the call before that point, but obviously Isabeau was determined to get Mel's attention.

_Pussycat, pussycat, I love you. Yes I do – _

"Don't you dare!" she snarled and lunged for her cellphone on the bedside table. There was a lot of desperate grabbing and phone flipping as she attempted to answer it before Tom Jones drove her insane.

"It's 3 in the fucking morning, what the fuck d'you want?" she snapped, knowing full well that Iz would take it all in her stride.

"Well good morning to you too, bitch. Is that anyway to talk to your best friend?" she laughed in reply, completely used to Mel's antics.

"Well I would have spoken to you early but I'd hate to interrupt playtime with your boy-toy," Mel replied, trying to keep the petulant hurt out of her voice.

"First of all – boyfriend – second of all – we do not have sex that much and you know it." Izzy seemed completely oblivious.

"Well how would I know, you moved in with him the second Pepper gave you that promotion."

Maybe she couldn't keep the petulant hurt out of her voice.

"That's only because you ran away to go find yourself when Tony fired you."

"Tony did not fire me, I quit. Don't make up shit now."

"You're telling me not to make up shit, are you serious?"

"What did you _want_ Isabeau?" Mel groused, sounding as much as a petulant sleep-deprived child as she could. The only way to stop their fights from starting was with humour. And Mel was way too tired to fight.

"Well, _friend_, I just called to say that I'm going to Germany!" Isabeau squealed. She liked to travel, and opportunity to do say got her all excited.

"Is Pepper doing something there?" Mel asked quickly. Coulson hadn't told her anything about Pepper going to Germany, or Tony for that matter.

She was sentimental, she liked to keep tabs on them.

"No, silly goose," Silly goose? Oh god, "Ben's been over there doing this story on this scientist dude and there's going to be this ball and he invited me to go with him. It's going to be great."

Mel was still concerned. She knew 'what you don't know won't hurt you' but somehow she didn't think it was the case in this situation. The bitch of it all though was that Isabeau had no clearance. If she did Mel could tell her everything and they could be proper friends again instead of this weird long-distance thing going on.

"Oh, that's great. Does he own a castle with a sex dungeon in it?" Mel said when she realised she had been quiet for too long.

"You make it really hard to talk to you when all you do is talk about my sex-life," Iz deadpanned.

"So you don't deny it!" was the over-dramatic reply.

"Right, you've not slept enough, but I'll call you when I'm in Stuttgart. Good night, Mel," Iz said, but laughed a little when she ended the call.

Mel turned onto her back, to stare at the ceiling, cellphone still in hand.

What was Agent Smith doing in Germany?

She wanted to go call in a few favours, but somebody called her first.

"Agent Lachly, are you presentable?" the P.A. buzzed overhead suddenly loud and even more obnoxious than her ringtone. Even with the unusual static to it, she could recognise those honey tones anywhere.

"As long as presentable doesn't include needing a shower, Agent Coulson."

"You have ten minutes, meet me on the runway. We'll brief you on the plane."

And that was all she wrote.

xxxXXXXXxxxXx

"_And is Malibu everything you hoped for, Isabeau, dearest?" Mel asked, with as much sarcasm as she could manage whilst cleaning a clogged toilet._

"_Lest we forget, Melody dearest, that this was your idea," Isabeau snapped back as she scrubbed dried up vomit from the floor._

"_We needed a job, and this was all that was available. I know the job you really wanted, and this is just motivation to go and get it."_

"_Scrub toilets or apply for a job working for Tony Stark and Pepper Potts. Yeah, I think I'd rather scrub toilets than embarrass myself in front of Tony fucking Stark and Pepper Potts," she huffed angrily. She needed the anger. If she didn't have it she would have added to the layer of vomit, compliments of her squeamish stomach._

"_You could wear an earpiece so I could be there with you, and also see if they need another house maid or cleaner or mechanic or something. You know, so that I'm not the only one still cleaning up shit from other people."_

"_An earpiece?" Izzy sneered, far too frustrated to do anything else, "What are we, X-men?"_

"_Okay, we agreed never to bring that up again. Do you remember when we agreed? Because I remember. I think we made that deal right after you blew up their superjet thing."_

"_We thought it was a school, how was I supposed to know there more flammable things in there other than a couple of lightbulbs and cleaning chemicals? And what about you, wildcat? You're the one who bit the Beast in the-."_

"_Yes, well that was because I was trying to cause a distraction whilst you hightailed away from the big burning plane!"_

"_And how exactly did distracting Beast lead to fucking Beast?"_

"_There was some kind of experimental substance involved – you blew up a plane!"_

_Any further argument was ended abruptly when short, bald man ran into the bathroom and proceeded to give the pair an impressive show of projectile vomiting, missing the toilet seat entirely, and landing it squarely on top of Isabeau's head._

"_Sorry," the man gurgled out, almost unintelligible, before crawling over to a stall and passing out._

_Mel looked over at her best friend and vomit soaked hair with her hands clasped over her mouth to stop her from retching or laughing or both._

"_Maybe a new job would be nice."_

XXXxxxxXXxxX

Isabeau smiled in spite of herself at the memory. The vomit itself wasn't that hard to get out of her hair as one might expect. Mel never shut up about it for at least a year. She even told Tony about for some unknown reason. Unforgiveable. Tony was able to find the security footage too, which unfortunately lead to the whole tale of how she managed to bed the Beast. Or at least the parts that Mel remembered. Tony was not willing enough to search for _that _kind of video footage.

"_I don't think I'm ready for that level of kinky, Melody," Tony said with a sly grin._

"_Call me 'Melody' one more time and will scar you for life, Stark," was her quick, idle threat._

She was lying in bed, wide awake at 3 in the morning. Normally she would be asleep, making sure she had at least 8 hours for work the next day, but the call from Ben was the first kind of communication she'd had with him in over a week. She'd thought they had broken up with his sudden up-and-vanish-with-no-explanation routine. She also knew that she shouldn't be so quick to agree to see him again, but it was a free flight to Germany and back and she could give him a piece of her mind in person.

Well, probably not. As much as she wanted to be angry with him, she knew that she'd mellow out the second she saw him. Or at least she would try to mellow out. Anger was never really her strong suit. Panic and paranoia came easily to her, so at least she had that.

She spent the next 3 hours cleaning her tiny apartment, often having to go to extensive lengths to find some _to _clean. She was more than aware that she had a considerable amount of dust sticking to her in odd places that she was still trying to wipe off as she walked into Stark Industries to work for her boss – the CEO of said company – Pepper Potts.

XXXxxXxXXXxxxXx

"_You know most of the girls that come here are looking for a shot at the great Tony Stark," a red headed woman said politely. She may have been polite, but the insult was quite clear to Isabeau's ears._

"_Well you wouldn't have to worry about me, Miss Potts, I'm not like those girls at all," she replied, giggling nervously. She panicked at her wording, which is what caused her sudden verbal diarrhoea._

"_Not to say that I'm not like most girls. Like I am similar to them, of course, we're all normal, but – well not normal, just average – Not that I'm saying you're average, because you're not you know, you're extraordinary and I'm just so honoured – not to say Tony Stark isn't great – because he is, I'm sure – ." She couldn't stop even if she wanted to. She had clasp her hands over her mouth just to stop from talking._

"_I can see you're a little nervous, Miss Asmundor, you can take a moment to catch your breath if you need to," Pepper placated. She looked at the nervous wreck and felt disappointed. _

_Her attire, at first, seemed bland and simple – but Pepper liked bland and simple. Bland and simple and neutral and nothing that Tony was interested in. Her nerves, though, were getting the better of her and when working anywhere near Tony Stark one had to have nerves of steel._

"_Thank you. I just meant that I'm not here for Tony Stark or anything he's associated with. I mean, I'm sure it would look great on my resume, but I am here because you are just such an inspiration to me, Miss Potts. I just look up to you, not because you're Anthony Stark's assistant, but because you are able to keep that crazy man grounded somehow and keeping crazy people grounded is really my life's mission," Izzy said slowly, trying not to sound over the top, and added, "or just one crazy person, but who's counting?"_

_Pepper smirked at that. Whilst she was used to flattery, she could tell that this girl was more genuine than anyone else who had applied for the job._

"_Well, I have had years of experience," Pepper acquiesced, "and I'd be more than happy to pass my wisdom on, if that's what you wish?"_

_Isabeau had to stop herself from nodding eagerly. She went for just smiling and nodding once, not trusting her voice._

"_I have some other applicants to look at, but if you have the job, I will call you and let you know within the week."_

XXXxxxxXXxxX

"Isabeau! Wonderful! Just in time, I need you to call ahead and double check the time of the Detroit flight later this week. It is of the upmost importance that we get there on time."

And there she was. Pepper Potts on a roll. It was magnificent to look at really, but Isabeau couldn't admire for long, as she raced after her boss.

"Oh, and you have that trip to Germany you were telling me about! We need to incorporate that in as well. You're leaving tonight aren't you?" Pepper said without stopping her movement. She was tapping ceaselessly at her StarkPad and Isabeau could barely get a word in edge wise.

"Yes! I'm going to see my boyfriend," she said quickly, "You remember him, don't you?"

"Oh yes," the red head replied stopping suddenly, "I remember. Benedict Smith."


End file.
